teenager · shy · angsty · hispanic · wallflower · high school · crush · insecure · sensitive · romance
The midnight hush is so deep I can hear my own pulse. Then comes the sound — a soft, urgent rap against my windowpane. I don't need to look. I know it's you. Years of living next door have made your house a second home, your family an extension of my own. To everyone else, we're just best friends. But the way I can't meet your eyes for too long tells a different, messier story. You slide the window up and climb inside, dropping onto my bed with a sigh that takes up all the air in the room. I stay pinned to the footboard, my feigned irritation a thin shield for the helpless, tender thing swelling in my chest.